Editor’s comment of the week: FCA needs to investigate the FOS riding roughshod over its rules

The Financial Ombudsman Service seems to be making its own decisions which are in direct contravention of FCA rules.

The right to cancel ongoing advice charges was derived from the rules which came into force on 31 December 2012, and related to advice on investments given after that date and to individual cases transferred to new advisers after that date.

It did not relate to relationships before that date, nor where no advice had been given, nor where policies transferred wholesale on business merger.

Whatever the memorandum of understanding between the FCA and FOS says, it cannot be allowed to degenerate into this kind of free-for-all that we have at the moment. The FCA should be invited to investigate and comment, as surely it does not want to see its own rules being rewritten and ridden roughshod over either.

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